Mike is a retired stock broker, and now published author of Gold Rush!. In addition, he is a freelance writer specializing in real estate, personal finance and home decor now writing from San Miguel, Mexico.

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The Federal Reserve’s ever-increasing “short-term” lending to major commercial and investment banks, described in the news report appended here, is starting to recall the boast of Barrick Gold a few years ago that its huge gold loans were “evergreen,” written for 15-year terms but always allowed to be extended for another year every year.

Barrick’s suggestion was that its gold loans never had to be repaid — that they were gold loans from central banks and that the central banks did not want their gold back, that the central banks wanted instead for the gold price to be suppressed. By contrast, demanding repayment of the gold loans would cause a short squeeze in the gold market and send the price soaring. That’s what central bank gold sales seem to be: not delivery of new gold into the market but cash settlement of old gold loans that can’t be repaid without causing that short squeeze.

For who else would want to “lend” gold on the virtually indefinite terms available to Barrick? Who else would even be able to lend gold this way? Who else would want to do so? And what purpose could such loans have other than to suppress the price?

Does the Fed want its burgeoning loans to the commercial and investment banks repaid? Probably not any time soon, for all these “short-term” billions can be deployed to rig a lot of markets — not just the mortgage derivatives markets that are the center of attention but very possibly the commodities markets as well. Thus these loans would become just like the funds in the Fed’s pool of repurchase agreements with the Fed’s primary dealers in New York, a pool of funds that now stands near $300 billion. These funds too are nominally “temporary” loans, but the pool never goes back to zero or even close. To the contrary, it is usually growing and has nearly doubled over the last six months — and its only purpose is market rigging.

News organizations and Congress have not yet realized the purposes to which infinite money may be put and so haven’t begun questioning all the money being flung around. But it’s not about free-market capitalism; it’s what’s called lemon socialism, wherein private interests take any profits and the public assumes any losses.

BTW, we have not had any POMOs since May of 2007 and that was for $1.396 Billion, a far cry from $94 Billion in nine operations in March, 2008.

Update:

I don’t want to leave the impression that the FED is ballooning the money supply with these POMOs, when in fact they have been DRAINING operations. At last count these Outright Coupon Sales or Outright Bill Sales have continued daily for $5 Billion a day. Then since April 3rd they stopped. The total since starting, about $120 Billion.

Every time Gold action gets blood boiling, some government official trots out “central bank to sell Gold or the IMF to sell Gold.” It’s all designed to cap the price so you don’t know inflation is picking up. The Gold price rising is thet canary in the mine. If the bird stops chirping or if Gold prices rise, you know you’re in trouble.

Here’s the latest twitch from government officials and immediately shot down:

Der Spiegel magazine reported in a preview of its latest edition that Finance Ministry State Secretary Werner Gatzer had proposed selling part of the central bank’s gold reserves, currently worth around 65 billion euros (51.5 billion pounds).

According to the plan, the proceeds could then be either invested to earn interest or debt could be paid off freeing up cash that would have been used to for interest payments, the magazine said, citing unidentified participants in a March 13 meeting of budget experts.

So on March 13 Der Spiegel magazine writes that Finance Ministry State Secretary Werner Gatzer proposed in a meeting that German central bank sell some of its Gold. If you look at this chart of April Gold it sure seems orchestrated. Following the meeting on March 13, volume picked up and then Gold took a terrific beating falling from $1017 to $924 in less than a week. Now we get the denial and the rise can resume.

The result: the canary warning is subdued, confidence is hurt, margin accounts suffer and the insiders rush in and scoop up cheap Gold. Now, we are told the FED needs more power! More power to help the insiders and to screw the public.

Two movements converged this morning. In June,2005, I defined fascism in What is Fascism? I wrote,

In its general sense, fascism (small “f”) means state control over the individual and the economy using regimentation and regulation. While similar to state socialism in its authoritarianism, fascism prefers state control over ostensibly private property rather than nationalization.

In The Oregonian, first Matt Welch, editor in chief of Reason magazine, wrote a column titled The myth of a maverick. In the article, Welch writes, “…in both legislation and rhetoric, Mr. McCain has consistently sought to restrict the very freedoms he once exercised, in the common national enterprise of â€œserving a cause greater than self-interest.â€

â€œWe are fast becoming a nation of alienating individualists, unwilling to put the unifying values of patriotism ahead of our narrow self-interests,â€ Mr. McCain warned in a speech during his 2000 presidential campaign.

In the second, Reuters tells us, “the U.S. Treasury Department will propose on Monday that the Federal Reserve be given sweeping new powers that would make it chief regulator with authority to require actions to ensure market stability.”

I have railed against the FED often, writing that since 1913 when the FED was created, financial crises have not been avoided, one of the reasons the FED was created, instead we’ve had a depression, inflation, resulting in a 95% fall in the currency, and skyrocketing debt. Now we want to give the FED sweeping new powers to deal with the mortgage crisis which is a result of the FED’s policies.

The sweeping new powers include:

fix “regulatory gaps and redundancies”

“market stability regulator” – GATA has argued for some time that the Plunge Protection Team (PPT) and the Working Group for Financial Markets interfere in our financial markets capping the price of Gold and preventing market corrections.

broad authority to require information from all participants in financial markets and a right to collaborate with other regulators in writing the rules that companies and institutions must follow. – This would mean that the FED could raid any finacial institution, hedge fund or private investment group for priviledged information

it should have some authority over the investment banks – not since the 1930s has this area been regulated.

an optional federal charter for insurance companies.

The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Democratic Rep. Barney Frank, last week said Congress should seriously consider giving a federal agency the power to monitor all risk in the financial system and act when necessary, regardless of its corporate form.

George Ure writes at UrbanSurvival.com the FED (a cartel of banks) seized control of the currency in 1913. “It’s about to seize Wall Street.”

Oh, and in dabbling their toes in owning (as securities pledge against loans) CMO’s and such, the Fed may also have tipped its hat that it’s getting into real estate ownership.

Ure argues that ‘market stability’ is really price fixing!

The convergence I see is the sweeping FED powers combined with a malignant form of “patriotism” giving us a totalitarian country far removed from the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

You want the market to go down? All you have to do is start talking like an idiot about raising caital gains tax rates as Barack Obama has just done with CNBCâ€™s Maria Bartiromo. Ben Smith at Politico has this exchange:

BARTIROMO: “How do you plan to change the tax code when it comes to capital gains? How high will that 15 percent rate go?”

Sen. OBAMA: “Well, you know, I haven’t given a firm number. Here’s my belief, that we can’t go back to some of the, you know, confiscatory rates that existed in the past that distorted sound economics. And I certainly would not go above what existed under Bill Clinton, which was the 28 percent. I would–and my guess would be it would be significantly lower than that. I think that we can have a capital gains rate that is higher than 15 percent. If it–and if it, you know–when I talk to people like Warren Buffet or others and I ask them, you know, what’s–how much of a difference is it going to be if it’s 20 or 25 percent, they say, look, if it’s within that range then it’s not going to distort, I think, economic decision making. On the other hand, what it will also do is first of all help out the federal treasury, which is running a credit card up with the bank of China and other countries. What it will also do, I think, is allow us to make investments in basic scientific research, in infrastructure, in broadband lines, in green energy and will allow us to give us–give some relief to middle class and working class families who have been driving this economy as consumers but have been doing it through credit cards and home equity loans. They’re not going to be able to do that. And if we want the economy to continue to go strong, then we’ve got to make sure that they’re getting a little relief as well.”

Why are we, a capitalist country, so eager to penalize those that take risks for big gains. Does this idiot not realize how many are employed by companies run by risk takers?

France – Capital gains tax is a flat 16%, with an annual exclusion or allowance of â‚¬5600. Residents pay an additional 11.6% ‘Social Charges’, non-residents are not liable to this

Germany – There is currently no capital gains tax after a holding period of one year for shares

Hong Kong – no capital gains tax.

Hungary – Since 1st of September 2006 there is one flat tax rate (20%) on capital income.

Iceland – In Iceland there is a 10% tax on realised capital gains.

India – Long term capital gains from equities are not taxed.

Ireland – There is a 20% tax on capital gains
The tax rate is 23% on certain investment policies, and rises to 40% on certain offshore gains when they are not declared in time.

Italy – Capital gains are taxed at a flat 12.5%.

Japan – In Japan, there are two options for paying tax on capital gains. The first, Withholding Tax (æºæ³‰èª²ç¨Ž, Withholding Tax?), taxes all proceeds (regardless of profit or loss) at 1.05%. The second method, declaring proceeds as “taxable income” (ç”³å‘Šæ‰€å¾—, “taxable income”?), requires individuals to declare 26% of proceeds on their income tax statement.

Malaysia – There is no capital gains tax for equities

Mexico – There is a capital gains tax, rate unknown

Netherlands – There is no capital gains tax

However a “theoretical capital yield” of 4% is taxed at a rate of 30%.

In other words, all property and savings (with the exception of owner-occupied dwelling, pensions, approved “green” investments and monies below a certain threshold) are taxed at 1.2% as a substitute for capital gains tax.

Also, dividends and “proceeds (Dutch: vervreemdingswinsten) from significant stakes” (e.g. 5% or more of the ownership of a company) are taxed at 25%. So the latter can be seen as a capital gains tax.

New Zealand – New Zealand does not have a capital gains tax in most cases. However, certain capital gains are classified as taxable income in New Zealand and thus are subject to income tax, such as regular share trading.

Norway – The individual capital gains tax is 28%.

Poland – Since 2004 there is one flat tax rate (19%) on capital income.

Portugal – There is a capital gains tax on sale of home and property. Any capital gain (mais-valia) arising is taxable as income.

Currently, for stock held for more than twelve months the capital gain is exempt. The capital gain of stock held for shorter periods of time is taxable on 10%.

Russia – The capital gains tax in Russia is 13% for tax residents and 30% for non-residents.

Singapore – There is no capital gains tax in Singapore.

South Korea – Capital gains tax in South Korea is 11% for tax residents for sales of shares in small- and medium-sized companies. Rates of 22% and 33% apply in certain other situations.

Sweden – The capital gains tax is 30% on realized capital income.

Switzerland – There is no capital gains tax in Switzerland for residents.

Thailand – There is no separate capital gains tax in Thailand. All earned income from capital gains is taxed the same as regular income.However, if individual earns capital gain from security in the Stock Exchange of Thailand, it is exempted from personal income tax.

United Kingdom – All individuals are exempt from CGT up to a specified amount of capital gains per year. For the 2007/8 tax year this “annual exemption” is Â£9,200.

Why should China, Hong Kong and Russia have lower CGT rates lower than the seat of Capitalism?

The NY Post alleges Ex-Gov Spitzer involved with second brothel ring headed up by madam Kristin Davis that was taken down yesterday.

At the center of the new ring is Kristin “Billie” Davis, a busty bottle blonde who hails from a (r)ough-and-tumble California trailer park. She has a reputation for hard-partying, shameless self-promotion and a rumored 10,000-name-long client list

I love this caption to the photo: “Davis’ lawyer said his client is a former hedge-fund worker.”

First Hillary says hedge fund workers aren’t doing real work, even though Chelsea Clinton works for a hedge fund, and now this. You can tell former hedge fund worker Davis is pure evil. Look at the upside down cross!

It was almost a year ago I posted this headline, New Century, Sub-Prime Lender, Bankrupt!

Now the NY Times reports an independent report commissioned by a division of the Justice Department concludes â€œimproper and imprudent practicesâ€ by New Century were condoned and enabled by its auditors, KPMG.

The 580-page report documents how New Century lowered its reserves for loans that investors were forcing it to buy back even as such repurchases were surging. Had it not changed its accounting, the company would have reported a loss rather a profit in the second half of 2006. The company first acknowledged that its accounting was wrong in February 2007 and sought bankruptcy protection less than two months later as its lenders stopped doing business with it.

Who benefitted?

The profit was important because it allowed executives to earn bonuses and convince Wall Street that it was in fine shape financially when in fact its business was coming apart, the report contended.

trading

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